Life at CMU : May 14 to May 31

It has been about three weeks since I have landed in Pittsburgh and the experience has been wonderful so far.
On Thursday 14th we had our first day at CMU. It felt so momentous to be a part of such a prestigious institution The moments were captured splendidly by our cameraman.

The next day we had our international orientation and the organizers did an amazing job to keep us engaged. But the electives were proving to be a headache as we could not get our preferred choices , thanks to a crappy schedule and dumb registration process. So what can be done best when in trouble ? Yes seek the blessings of almighty.. so our plan for the weekend was a visit to the much talked about Pittsburgh Sri Venkateswara Temple.

We decided to take a bus to SVN and The Lord had decided before hand that we had to go through trials n tribunals to get his darshan. The day started on a wrong foot with us waiting on the opposite end of the bus stop and watching a bus pass by right on the opposite direction. The frequency was limited as it was a weekend , so we had to wait for quite some time for the next bus. We got down after a half hour bus drive and we made the cardinal mistake of not taking a local map along. So a word of caution to all those people who would be travelling soon to USA. Always have with you a local map, gps device or anything that could aid you in directions.. It is better to learn from mistakes, especially from others’ mistakes

After endless searches, innumerable enquires and about 1 and 1/2 hours walk, we saa a board reading “SVN Temple ” 3 miles away The Lord decided enough was enough and a kind hearted woman offered us a lift on her car upto the temple. We had a satisfying darshan of the lord. The prasadam given inside the presiding deity’s shrine was almonds and resins. The place was swarming with Tamils and Andhra natives. We decided to check the famous prasadam counter there and ate sumptously some tamarind and sambhar rice ( For each food packet, we had to donate 2 dollars to the temple ).It started raining by the time we were preparing to leave and again a kind hearted Telugu couple offered us a lift till the bus stop. In general, the Indians here are very helpful in nature ( they do understand the financial and logistical perils of graduate students ). The Lord never fails those who have faith in him and by the beginning of the following week, most of us got the electives we desired

The days kept passing within a wink and the people here are fitness freaks. You can find most teen girls jogging vigorously trying to stay fit. They are good at it, but still lack the natural grace that Indian girls have One complaint though, is that girls smoke a lot here and either the cigarettes are too tobacco strong, or they are devoid of filters cos the smoke gives quite a strong odour; it is dangerous for them as well as the passive smokers around them.

The next big occasion was my dear friend Vignesh’s birthday ! We had deviced a secret plan to surprise him on the evening of his birthday, so even my morning greetings to him that day were underplayed. He had a class from 5 30 to 8 30 and I was done with my classes by five in the evening. So me n Bhadri rushed out to Trader Joe’s to grab a 3 pound Ice cream cake for the occasion. It was drizzling all along but who would mind it when one of your best friends’ birthday celebrations were shortly due ?

Most of our batchmates including our “seniors” Nitin and Priya ( err.. “senior” sounds strange because though they are 2009 grads of CMU, they were our class mates in U.G ) had arrived in time. My other room mate Dhawan was bringing Viki along and when he arrived at the house to see all our friends waiting to celebrate his birthday, his emotions kept varying between joy and disbelief ! It is for moments like these that we live our life

The celebrations continued till almost midnight and the fun continued with Viki throwing in a surprise lunch for the entire MS IT/MSE batch in CMU !

Saturday was another important day in my life. I was leading an assorted CMU team against Linbrook Cricket Club ! My comebacks and tryst with cricket continue in Pittsburgh as well. We won the match comfortably against our opponents and it was a pleasure to lead such a diverse group. Most of them spoke Hindi, so my medium of communication was english and to my surprise, I found that I could comprehend whatever they wanted to put accross to me and could make out some “sledging” terms from the opponents as well ! So watch out.. I am fast improving The occasion was more important. The proceed from the ticket sales for the match ,along with the auction that followed the game would be used to sponsor needy children through CRY-INDIA, and my day as captain of the team was made truly memorable when I received a mail from the organizers saying the match helped them collect a good sum for sponsorship through CRY(approx 1700$). The money would be transferred soon to India , and it feels great to contribute in whatever small manner we could to a child from my motherland, though a great distance separates her from me these days. Now to all those critics of cricket ; will you still say cricket is a waste of time ?

Journey to the USA

With a heavy heart, leaving warm dreams behind in my chase for newer dreams, I left my motherland at midnight on May 9 th.

I checked in at the airport and I was supposed to take the flight to Doha ( Qatar Airways) at 4:45 A.M.
Since I was travelling by flight for the first time I was curious about all the follow up and precedent activities that come along with the journey.Suprema who came along with us was our travel guide as she had been to the U.S before

The flight did not have much of leg space and I was hoping atleast the Air Hostesses would not be covered from head to toe in a purdah ( I had paid 33000 Rs ). I went in to take my seat and the interiors of the flight did not seem much better than a K.P.N deluxe service. The take off part was fun though, when you can feel the softness of your interior stomach muscles, reminding you of the roller coaster rides in our theme parks.

It was almost a 3 1/2 hour flight to Doha and the air hostess served some good breakfast consisting of pongal,vada,sambar, bread, bun, and tea. Then we were forced to watch the movie “Aegan” as it was the only option available. I could not stand it for more than half an hour and thought would just close my eyes instead trying to catch up with some sleep( Nayan was looking good as usual in the movie ).I peeped out to catch a bird’s eye view of Doha. It was a fascinating mix: on one side there were silky beaches and on the other side, sand structures stretching a mile. It was almost landing time and as we were coming down in altitude my ears started aching terribly. Luckily it did not last long and we reached Doha at around 6 30 a.m local time, with the sun beating down our backs.

The Doha airport is pretty huge and we found a cosy place to sit peacefully. A few good looking school girls who were heading for some event and two foreigners who got into an altercation provided some good entertainment. The Airport has wi-fi facilities and it was good to chat with dear ones back home.It was local time 8 30 and just then we realised that we had a flight to catch up at 9: 20 !

The security checks this time were elaborate and nerve wrecking. You have to unpack, remove your laptop and send it through a scanner, then your cabin baggage, then your wallet, kercheif, neckpouch, belt, shoes, almost everything and send it through another scanner again.Even a guy who wants to blow the airport would be exhausted and just give up.In typical “namma ooru style”, we boarded the flight at 9:15

This time the flight to Washington had individual entertainment packages attached to the front seats to make lives better, but I made a first grab for the ear plugs this time !But again there was no leg space and that meant not much of sleep in this journey as well.( A strong “no-no” for all those wanting to travel by Qatar economy class ). I started out by listening to MJ’s album “Thriller”. The airlines authorities decided that they were gonna stop us being pampered by their middle aged air hostesses who showed some “motherly” love. They decided to make matters worse and send their stewards instead ! There was this guy who was dressed up neat, looked tall and well built and yet, when he took orders, you could not find a voice more feminine and sweet ! I had a good welcome drink: apple juice without ice. It was so delicious.

The fisrt movie I watched was Kuselan. Somehow it was not as bad as it was when I watched its first show in theatre. The climax was awesome and Super Star was amazing. The emotional portrayal and his tearful speech on friends left a lump and I was feeling down thinking of all those friends I was going to miss from
then on.I decided to watch the Hindi version too :”Billu Barber” to see the differences and Shah Rukh was pathetic. He just did not stand a chance in comparision to our Rajni in the climax. The movie was worse than Kuselan and lacked any emotion. They spoilt the essence of the story in the name of underplay.

It was almost lunch time and the veg. meal was pathetic. Somehow the steward decided salmon was veg.( perhaps it grew up eating moss and lichen which in turn must have eaten veg). He also had the brains and b*lls to tell us that ” if you are pure veg, then you might not like it !” and got a piece of my mind back in return. I managed with some paneer and jeera rice which would not have satified the appetite of a 2 year old kid.

The next movie was Dhaam Dhoom followed by Nancy Drew: The curious case of some (.. I forgot the rest of the title ;D ) .Both were good. I watched a bit of the movies “The Wrestler” and “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Dinner was once again pathetic. I asked for some vegetarian sandwhich and somehow all the vegetables resembled tomatoes in it ( just being pathetically sarcastic, for Qatar, veg meant tomatoes and it was a tomato sandwhich).At around 4 : 20 local time, we set foot in Washington and headed straight for the emigration and customs formalities.

I would briefly touch upon them for the benefit of people who are gonna head to the States in the near future.Once you land in Washington ( or New York) make a headstart to the emigration line in order to save some time. Keep your passport, I 20 ( if you are travelling by F1 ) , and your boarding passes always with you in your handbag or a neck pouch.( This is right from your journey in Chennai, at all stop overs you need the passport and your boarding passes at your arm’s length).You would also need to fill your I-94 and Customs Declaration forms which they would distribute in the flights,approximately one hour before your scheduled landing.The first step is the longest one: They check for all these above mentioned artifacts and ask you a few basic questions.Some of the questions to me where “What is the purpose of your visit ?” “What program are you gonna take ? ” “Is this the first time to states ?” “Are you travelling alone ? ” “Have you brought any food items ? ” ( I have been told by Mom since childhood never to lie and so I promptly said ” Pickles : the preservative stuff but you might as well say “no” and avoid further questions ). The officer then makes a signature on the i-94, staples it to your passport, and makes a stamp on the i 20 as well( or your travel document, in case you are not travelling on F1).The next step is the collection of your baggage. The third and final step is customs checking where they collect your forms and pick up people for random baggage checking. This hardly happens and we all came out quickly but if you look like a lost hare among a fox mob, they might just probe you; so the best thing would be to walk past them briskly with a relaxed smile.

I was looking forward to meeting Suprema’s friends from college who said they will try making it to Washington( it goes without saying that they wer girls ) , and eating some good Indian food,but she spoilt the fun by asking them to stay at their places as it might get too late for our flight to Pittsburgh

We had a meal at Subway where I spent my first few dollars ( of course with a heavy heart, once you start the conversion to rupee). I had a veg. pizza at Subway for 4.19$

We boarded the flight to Pittsburgh at around 9 50 P.M local time. It was a short 50 minute flight and as my lucky stars would have it ; a decent looking babe,must be around 23- 25 came and sat right next to me ! Ilayaraja RR, warming up and all were short lived becouse soon her boy friend walked in and occupied a seat near to us She was busy with a novel, the boy friend was eating as if he was gonna fast for the next one week and I decided it was best to sleep

We were received at the airport by my room mate who had already reached a few days in advance and I reached my temporary housing at around 12 midnight.

America, lets see what you have got for us !